A SENSATIONAL CASE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9189, 8 September 1908, Page 2

A SENSATIONAL CASE.

By FLORENCE WARDEN.

Aiithor of " The~Lady in Black," "An Infamous Fraud," "For Love of Jack," "A Terrible Family," "The House on the Marsh,"

CHAPTER XXlll.—Continued.

"Oh," said Linley carelessly, "the row, as you call it, was the old one, that she will ask unnecessary ijUeations, and say things which no wife ought to say to her husband. I tjld her so," he went on in an aggrieved tone. "She had found out that young Waller had insured his life; and although I told her that it was your business, and not mine, and that it was a security for the money you were lending him, she became noisy and unpleasant, so that I really thought, the servants would hear and come in. And, if there's one thing I hate more than another, it is a domestic scene in the presence of the housemaid and the cook. It's very bad form, as I told her." Linley was pottering about, looking first for a cigarette, and then for a match, with the air cf one who just fills up his time with idle chatter. The Jew was staring at him intently. Moseley was generally accounted a cool hand himself, but he felt beside Linley like u cockle-shell boside an ironclad, and even with hia disgust at some of the methods of his partner in rascality there mingled a large amount of admiration. "You— told —her—that?" "Of course I did. And when she went on crying all the same, and saying that her heart was breaking and that she must go away because she couldn't bear it, I told her she could go away. So I asked young North esk to lend me hia brougham, and I packed my wife off at once to the house of a friend of mine up in town, who will see her off to Bournemouth to-morrow morning." "Bournemouth! Why Bournemouth?" "Oh, Bournemouth's a capital place for invalids." "But Mrs Hilliard is not an invalid!" "I don't know about that," said Linley, as he tooK out of his pocket an amber mouthpiece decorated wich a fern leaf with diamonds, and looked at it affectionately before fitting into it a cigarette. "She's not very strong. 1 d-w't think she is what a life-insurance office would call a good risk." For a moment Harrington Moseley stared at him with a sort of horror. Then ho asked in a hoarse voice: "Have you insured her ]if.-*, too?' " "Not: yet," answered Linle3 r , wiui composure. "Then, by heavens! Hilliard, if you do," broke in the Jew quickly, "I'll—l'll blow the gaff, I'll " "Cut your own throat in order to cat mine," finished Linley quietly. "Come, dear boy, do be reasonable. When we agreed to set up in business together here, with the idea of being mutually useful, we thought that my wife was going to be a great help, didn't we?" "Well, so she has been. She's given the place just the air we wanted—l wanted—of being a gentleman's private residence, and not what rude people call a gambling-den And she got hold of Waller and made him turn over a new leaf, when, if he'd kept on at the old place, he'd have died before his, father, and I should have lost my money. And— j and that isn't all she done for us, | through him," added he, v/ith dis-1 creet reticence. "Well," said Linley, as he pretend- J ed to stifle a yawn, as a hint to his companion that the conversation was beginning to bore him, "she's done | all for us that she intends to do, and the question now is how to prevent her working against us. I don't mind tailing you that the reason I sent her away so abruptly was that she threatened to put Waller on his guard." "And what would that matter 0 " asked the Jew hastily. "We're not going to do him any har.n. As for the insurance on his life, it is a mere matter of business to secure oneself against accident!" "So I told her," answered Linley imperturbably. "But—you know how obstinate women are—shi persists in suspecting us—you and me—of plots and designs which entered our heads. Now," and hj cast an inquisitive glance at the other, "don't 'you see that it was better to send her away?" The Jew, mumbled some sort of grumbling assent, but ho threw suspicious glances at Linley, who yawned, stretched out his arms lazily, and observed that it must be getting late. "Early," said Moseley laconically, as he looked at the clock. "It's nearly four o'clock." "Are they all gone?" arked Linley. The Jew frowned. "Yes. We broke up early to-right'.' That confounded fellow Thovndyke upset everything. I never came across such a wet blanket; all the spirit seemed to go out of the game H 3 soon as he canu near the table. He has an evil eye, 1 believe, that fallow! Sha'n't come hare again." Linley was frowning, too. "Yuj 11 have hard wo, k to keep him out," said he decidedly. "He's h brat.i! It turn-tout that he wad an old sv»u>. t it-a tot" nr/ wife'?, and I found nun making love to her, or the next thr'T to it, when I came downstairs. I; was he who made all the mischiei. As a caretul husband, went <"i Linley. with deliberation, "I sh .11 v.m isiatr it my d ity to forbid him tiie to.' the future." "Quite so," a?'id Mr Moseley, with n grin, as he 11)Jd_■< 1 gJJ.i *iit;ht, and went up'dtaird. He had scarcely left the room when the languor dropped from Linley's manoer, and he became as alert and lively as a bird. Cros°ing quickly to the door, he listened (intil Moseley'a footsteps had become inaudible on the stairs; then, with a face in which at last there

was a gleam of real excitement, he softly opened the door, stepped outside, shut it after him, and glided softly through the hall in the darkness until he reached the door of the library. Here he put his hand upon the key, which was in the lock, and then waited one more moment, just to make sure that no one was about. Then he unlocked the door, stepped into the room, and shut it softly hehind him. He knew the way to where the matches were, kept—Linley always knew the way to everything—and he lit the' gas, and began to hunt among the books on the shelves. The library was a very complete one, having been bought by Moseley, with the house, from the executors of a retired physician, a man of wide reading, taste, and knowledge. Linley hunted long before he found what he wanted; volumes ot' history, calf-bound dignified; rows of poets, somberly brilliant in morocco and gold; a stately array of standard novels; tomes of sermons, whose very outward appearance was improving; all these and many more Linlay passed and rejected, until at last, with a gentle sigh, he came to a shelf containing medical works. Linley's eyes seemed to dilate; his hand clutched tremulously at the air in eager expectancy, until at length a soft exclamation broke from his lips, and his eager hands closed upon a modest little volume which he tore quickly from the shelf. The title of the book was "Symptoms, Treatment and Detection of Poisons." Linley carried the book to a table under the gas, and read long and attentively, making notes as he went, in a cipher of his own, on an old envelops he took from his pocket. He read so long, and studied so attentively, that the servants were moving about the house at their morning's work before he was tirad of his engrossing occupation. At the first sound outside he did not start, but he looked up, with a curious smile on his lips. Then ho rose, turned out the gas, and seized his opportunity to escape up to his room unseen. On his way he stopped, just for one second, outside the door of Waller's bedroom, and the pleasant smile on his lips grew just a little broader as he did so. CHAPTER XXIV. JEM CLIMBS A TREE. Gerard Waller, who had been awake all night, thought that at breakfast-time he should have the opportunity to ask Linley what had become of Netelka. But he was disappointed; for he had to breakfast by himself, and was told by the parlour-maid that Mrs Hilliard had gone away unexpectedly on the previous nighl, and that Mr Hilliard was not well enough to come downstairs. Waller had fretted himself into such a fever of anxiety by luncheontime that he insisted on seeing Linley, who received him in his wife's boudoir, arrayed in a pretty dressinggown of Chinese embroidered silk. He was enjoying a light luncheon of the wing of a chicken, some toast, and champagne, and he held out his hand to Waller with the languid air of a convalescent. (To be continued.)